Salad Night: Slow-Roasted Salmon Nicoise Salad

Thursday: Fish; We often have a salad night.  We like to make them a bit more substantial if that is all we are having; after hearing Gale Gand, we of course had to try another recipe from her new book "Lunch", so we went for our desire "salad".  Recipe #2 page 160; Slow-Roasted Salmon Nicoise Salad.  The idea is you roast the salmon in the oven, slowly, well not that slowly, you bake it for 15 to 20 minutes.  It does produce a melt-in-your-mouth texture.  The recipe calls  for a 1-pound fillet of salmon.  The recipe calls for Icelandic or other salmon.  Generally we use wild King or Coho or whatever wild salmon we can get our hands on that's not too over priced.  The salad was amazing, we did use the ingredients stated in the recipe, but then we added other elements that were in our re-fridge.  We will do this recipe again, it was very tasty. (Keeper, as I say, to make sure we have it again.)

Here's to eating better....

Dip Right In

Wednesday:  Dip Right In, is an article that I found in the June issue of Health Magazine. So if you're looking for a dip that won't kill you diet this is the article for you.   The idea is you start with one base and add different ingredients.
The Basic is Hearts of Palm Dip, so this will be the basis
1    large garlic clove, minced
      Salt and freshly ground white pepper
2    14-oz cans hearts of palm, drained, rinsed and cut into 1-inch pieces
1/2 cup plain Greek yorgut (not nontfat) or sour cream
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
      Pinch of cayenne pepper, or more to taste
On a cutting board, using side of a chef's knife, mash garlic with a generous pinch of salt until a paste forms.  Scrape into a food processor, add hearts of palm, yogurt and oil and process until well blended.  Scrape down sides of bowl, season with salt, white peper and cayenne and pulse until almost smooth.

per serving (1/4 cup),  80 calories, 7g fat (2g sat.), 2mg Chol., 2g fiber, 3g protein, 4g carbs., 273mg sod., 2mg iron, 52mg calcium  
 
The Asian-Style Roasted Carrot Ginger Dip, is the one we tried.  We've made this one several times and really enjoy the flavor of the roasted carrots and the ginger.  For dipping we used jicama, sugar snap peas, cucumbers, an assortment of peppers (orange and yellow), and some rice crackers.
If you're interested in the recipe, you can either find it at Health.com or email me and I'll send it to you.
                                                   
                       Here's to eating better...

Gale Gand, Chef amazing

Last night, Tuesday: Vegetarian:  Andrea and I went to Inkwood Books for a book signing by Gale Gand for her new book Lunch!  It was much more then we had expected, as we have been to many book signings before.  She spoke for about an hour and was very entertaining with lots of stories to tell.  You almost felt like she was your good friend by the time you left for the evening.  The owner of Inkwood, Stefani Beddingfield cooked several items from the cook book and set out quite a nice spread. Chef Gand did a short demo on her pea hummus, which in the book she calls Pea & Garlic Dip.  We have made Pea hummus before, but a nice added item she did was mint.  Wow it really changed the flavor of the hummus.  All in all we really enjoyed the evening, Thanks to Stefani, her staff especially Amanda and of Course Gail Gand.

Before we left to attend the book signing we tried one of the recipe's from the book.  Occasionally we just have a salad night, so we decided to try one from the book "LUNCH".  While I was out taking my mom to the acupuncturist, Andrea went to Fresh Market to find some Burrata.  Burrata is a creamy-centered mozzarella, which we discovered at Cheese Please last year (another independent seller.) 


Andrea had picked the Burrata with Grape Tomato & Celery Salad on page 163 in the book.  Andrea is not all that fond of celery so she used fennel instead.  Let me tell you it was a real treat.  We added to the meal roasted golden beets and left over enchiladas from Saturday night. Then we tasted all the goodies at Inkwood Books, that Stefani so graciously prepared. 

Roasted Beets:  Wrap the beets individually in aluminum foil and stick in the oven at 400 degrees for an hour, when they cool a bit peel off the skins.  In a frying pan toast cumin seeds, then add olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper, mix together and coat the beets with the mixture.                                             Delicious....

                                      Here's to eating better, not saying that I always do....

Monday: Vegetarian:  With the heat approaching the morning hours, we have decided to move to the gym. The goal was to do 3 different things for 10 minutes each.  Bikes came first, the the row machine and then the stair-master.  Goal accomplished.

Fresh Fava beans have started showing up in the grocery. Fava beans are a favorite in our house.  Except for one thing, preparing them is a night-mare. Taking the little jackets off is time consuming. 
Dinner:  Fava Bean and Spring Vegetable Soup,  a favorite.  
This came from Bon Appetit / May 2000 issue 

You think, isn't this the wrong time of year to have soup?  Usually I would answer yes, but this soup is crisp and full of veggies.  It definitely is full of spring vegitables. The recipe calls for lima beans, we will often replace them edamame, only because we like them better.

Here's to eating better. 

Sunday:Dinner on the deck;  it was nice enough out Sunday night to eat outside.  The nights will soon be too hot and humid to eat outside, so we took advantage.
Dinner: last night grilled baby bokchoy, salad and grilled lakeside turkey burgers
Our first grilling experience of bokchoy; 1. it doesn't take very long, like 3 minutes, mixing together sesame oil and teriyaki sauce, baste on the bokchoy and grill.  Very tender and tasty. The salad was the same as Saturday's.  The Lakeside Turkey Burgers was our latest endeavor with turkey burgers.  I found the recipe on Whole Foods, it was delicious.
Serves 4
Ingredients:
1/2   pound white ground turkey
1/2   pound dark ground turkey
6      sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil, thinly sliced, plus 2 tablespoons olive oil from the jar
2     tablespoons chopped parsley (or 2 teaspoons dried)
2     tablespoons chopped basil (or 2 teaspoons dried)
1     teaspoon garlic powder
       salt and pepper
4     whole wheat buns or rolls
4     teaspoons mayonnaise or your favorite sandwich spread
       lettuce and sliced tomatoes
Method:
Place turkey in a bowl.  Gently work in sun-dried tomatoes plus 2 tablespoons oil from the jar, parsley, basil, garlic, salt and pepper.  Take care not to overwork the mixture.
Note: The the reason for the mixture of the two typed of turkey is moistness, the burgers are much more moist with this mixture of light and dark. 

Saturday: Vegetarian:  The Belmont Stakes, we were really hoping California Chrome was going to win it; it’s about time for another Triple Crown winner.  It would have been a nice fairy tale story.  But that’s not what I’m here to talk about today.  

I’m here to talk about food, yes that’s right food. I have been delinquent these past few months. We have tried two new recipes this past week, which we really enjoyed.  Keeping in the line of fewer calories these were pretty good.  I found a recipe in Fitness Magazine, February 2014 issue. 

Indian Enchiladas;  Can I say YUM, see recipe below.  We added to the dinner a green salad made with extra arugula and spring mix, dried cranberries, sliced jicama, sliced radishes, avocado and our favorite dressing Maple Balsamic Vinaigrette.  (See July 18, 2013 for recipe)

Serves 8 

Nonstick cooking spray

½       tablespoon canola oil

1        medium potato, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch cubes  (we used 1 large size new potato)

1        medium shallot, chopped (recipe calls for onion)

¼       teaspoon salt

1        16-ounce bag fresh spinach (recipe calls for frozen chopped spinach, thawed)

1 ½    cups light coconut milk

2        teaspoons curry powder (next time Andrea will make her own curry)

6        ounces queso blanco or feta cut into ½-inch cubes (we used the queso)

8        8-inch corn tortillas (recipe used flour tortillas)

2        teaspoons cornstarch

1 ½    ounces shredded Monterey Jack (about ½ cup)

2        tablespoons finely chopped cilantro (we use flat leaf parsley)

 1.    Preheat the oven to 375°.  Spray a 9 x 13 inch baking dish with the cooking spray and set aside.  Heat oil in a large skillet over high heat; add potato, shallot and salt and cook, stirring occasionally until the shallot is soft and translucent about 8 minutes.  Stir in spinach, ½ cup coconut milk and curry powder and saute’ 2 minutes.  Remove from heat and gently fold in queso blanco or feta.

2.      Lay a tortilla on a clean surface.  Scoop 1 loosely packed cup filling mixture into the center of tortilla.  Fold in sides, top and bottom and place tortilla, seam down, in prepared baking .  Repeat with remaining tortillas packing them tightly. ( You may need to put a clean bowl or plate on top of the first few to hold them in place.)

3.      In a small bowl, whisk together remaining coconut milk and cornstarch; stir in Monterey jack and pour mixture over enchiladas.

4.      Bake 30 minutes, or until golden brown.  Remove from oven and let sit 3 minutes; garnish with cilantro.  

 Nutrition facts per serving: 303 calories, 13 g protein, 34 g carbs, 13 g fat (5.9 saturated), 2 g fiber,

 764 mg sodium